March 29, 2004

Who Ought to Govern the Internet? The Caffeine Metric

Well, it looks like we're once again going to be asking the question "Who is going to oversee the core shared resources of the internet?"

How are we to chose?  I have a suggestion - C8H10N4O2 - Caffine.

So perhaps we ought to chose the group that serves the best quality of coffee at their meetings.

By that measure the ITU looses out completely.  The IETF wins on quantity but does quite badly on quality.  The UN comes out mixed on the quality scale and poorly on the availability dimension.  ICANN's coffee quality and quantity are completely unpredictable.

At the ITU coffee comes from vending machines.

At the UN there are cafes that have pretty good coffee, but they seemed surprised that anyone might actually want some at 9am just before a meeting.

The IETF has gallons and gallons of warm brownish liquid made from syrup and hot water.

And ICANN depends on whatever sponsors chose to contribute.

Just what we don't need - a four way race with a four way tie for last place.

Posted by karl at March 29, 2004 8:32 PM